Students donate blood

The first of two blood drives scheduled by the PTK for the fall semester drew more than 25 donors to the Red Cross mobile blood bus. The members of the Alpha Pi Delta chapter who arranged the aid foundation’s visit to campus set up an adjacent tent and took the opportunity to publicize the national PTK Honors Society and promote student enrollment.

“Tamara White, the representative for the blood drive, approached us during the last Club Rush and asked, ‘Would PTK like to sponsor the blood drive,’” said Jason De Freitas, president of PTK’s Alpha Pi Delta chapter at Pierce. “I said ‘Sure.’ It’s mutually beneficial because people get to donate blood, each bag of blood saves lives. Plus we get to put posters around Pierce and let people know about the blood drive, and they know that PTK – an academic Honors Society – is sponsoring it.”

De Freitas said organizing the blood drive has been a rewarding contribution for the organization.

“I’ve always loved participating in PTK and participating in extracurriculars, and the American Red Cross was just a really good way to give back to the community,” De Freitas said.

Margelia Stewart, a 30-year-old biology major, was one of several people in line to donate and said her reasons were simple.

“Because I have time to, and I have blood,” Stewart said.

Political science major Monique Cardona, 21, said she donates every chance she gets.

“I just like to help, I donate blood as much as I can,” Cardona said. “I just saw the bus right now, I didn’t even know they were going to be here today and I was like, ‘Oh, I should go donate again.’”

Gabriela Negrón, R.N., works for the Red Cross and was the supervisor of the blood drive. She said they had received 18 units of donor blood so far, and that not everyone who came to donate met the foundation’s requirements.

“Sometimes they present, but they get deferred for whatever reason. Either they travelled somewhere or their hemoglobin was too low, or something,” Negrón said. “We’ve had more present, maybe 23, but out of those like five got deferred.”

PTK and the Red Cross will have another blood drive on Wednesday, Dec. 9